Surgical, medical, and dental instruments after use are typically contaminated with blood and other body matter and potentially with infectious microorganisms. Before being reused in a future procedure these instruments must be washed and disinfected where indicated. A typical cycle for cleaning medical instruments consists of a number of consecutive stages: pre-wash, wash, rinses (usually two) and drying. The pre-wash stage is used to dissolve blood on the instruments and may be run with a wash solution containing detergent and possibly enzymes. The wash part of the cycle is run with a wash solution containing detergent and possibly enzymes. Wash time, water temperature and detergent selection and concentration are matched according to requirements. Rinses are used to remove soil dissolved in the wash stage as well as the remaining detergent.
The process of washing and disinfecting becomes complicated when blood or other matter are allowed to dry on the instruments. The body fluids, such as blood, lipids and synovial fluids from joints adhere to the items used during a procedure. As these fluids dry, the adhesion gets stronger and the fluids get harder to dissolve using ordinary cleaning methods. Blood in particular becomes much more difficult to remove once it has dried. Eventually, the adhesion of the soils becomes too strong for normal detergents to break and the instruments remain soiled after cleaning. The chemical structures of these detergents do not allow them to react with body fluids without the body fluids first being changed by other chemicals like enzymes. Enzymes like protease break these body fluids down by the chemical reaction called hydrolysis which also breaks down their adhesive bond to the items the fluids are adhered to. When broken down in this manner, body fluids become more soluble in surfactants and can then be washed away.
The compositions and methods currently used have the drawback that when using them in manual cleaning of instruments the personnel cannot see the items to be cleaned and their contamination when these items are immersed in the wash solution due to the foaming or cloudiness of the solution. It is against this background that the present invention has been made.